Dean Baquet, a native son of New Orleans' Treme neighborhood, former reporter for The Times-Picayune, St. Augustine High School graduate and a member of one of the city's famed restaurant families, reached one of the top spots in American journalism Wednesday when The New York Times named him executive editor.

He replaces Jill Abramson, 60, who stepped down abruptly after three years at the helm of one of the world's most influential newsrooms. She was the first woman to hold that job. No reason was immediately given for her departure.

Baquet, 57, will begin his new job immediately, according to the Times. The promotion makes him the newspaper's first African-American executive editor.

Baquet served as The New York Times' managing editor and its Washington bureau chief after rejoining the newspaper's staff in 2007. He had previously been its national editor and deputy metropolitan editor before leaving to join the Los Angeles Times in 2000.

Baquet, a veteran of high-pressure newsrooms, is well-equipped to steer one of journalism's most prominent flagships as the industry wrestles with the transition to the digital age, said Walter Isaacson, an award-winning biographer and Baquet's former colleague at The States-Item in New Orleans.

"Dean has an attribute that is quite rare among smart people and especially among journalists, which was that he was nice," he said. "He understood that journalism wasn't about being mean to people, it was about understanding people. Even though he was hard-nosed and he never backed away from a good story, he liked people. And it's sort of a New Orleans trait."

Raised in the Treme, 7th Ward and Gentilly, Baquet is the fourth of five sons born to Edward and Myrtle Romano Baquet, restaurateurs who ran the now-closed Creole eatery Eddie's in the 7th Ward. His brother Wayne still runs lil Dizzy's restaurant in Treme.

Baquet spent school-day mornings mopping the restaurant's floor before heading to class at St. Augustine High School, recalled his younger brother, Terry Baquet. He didn't play music for the famous St. Augustine Marching 100, or sports, although he was a decent athlete.

Instead, he gravitated to his high school newspaper.

"He sees a story everywhere," said Terry Baquet, now director of print operations for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

A summer internship between years studying at Columbia University led to Dean Baquet landing on the police beat for New Orleans now-defunct afternoon paper, The States-Item. Isaacson recalled how he and Baquet were sued for libel in 1977 for writing a story that connected a bank executive to a suspicious fire on Claiborne Avenue. The executive was later indicted in a kickback scheme and the suit fell apart, which Isaacson said showed that Baquet's skills as an investigative reporter were on target.

"We were right in that case, and every case after that we worked together," Isaacson said.

Baquet joined The Times-Picayune after it merged with The States-Item in 1980, covering everything from crime to politics. He left in December 1984 to join the Chicago Tribune as its deputy metropolitan editor and chief investigative reporter.

Baquet would win a Pulitzer Prize three years later for his work leading a team that rooted out corruption in Chicago's City Hall.

"Dean understands instinctively how to lead, how to respond journalistically to the news and to engage readers," said Jim Amoss, editor of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and a former colleague of Baquet's. "He's inspiring, empathetic and unflappable. Journalists gravitate toward him, and with good reason."

Baquet left the Tribune to join the New York Times. John Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times, would later lure Baquet to the West Coast, making him managing editor. Baquet succeeded Carroll in 2005, becoming that paper's first African-American chief.

His time at the top would not end well, however. The Tribune earlier had acquired the Los Angeles Times, and Baquet eventually butted heads with top management by refusing to make staff cuts. That led to his firing.

But Baquet had a reputation that withstood what could derail most careers. The New York Times hired him back in 2007.

"He kept his honor at the L.A. Times which was an incredible thing to do," Isaacson said. "And he lived to tell the tale."

While at The Times-Picayune, Baquet achieved what any reporter would consider a coup as he covered the 1983 campaign of one of Louisiana's most colorful politicians: Edwin Edwards.

Leading in the polls at the time, Edwards looked unbeatable on his way to a third of four stints as Louisiana's governor. So Baquet asked him the obvious question and came away with one of the most famous quotes in modern American politics.

"The only way I could lose this election," Edwards said, "is if I'm caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."

It would take Baquet three days to get that line past The Times-Picayune's squeamish copy desk, he said in a 2012 interview with journalist Charles Lewis.

Edwards didn't recall Wednesday the exact circumstances under which he delivered Baquet that famous line.

"I have a propensity of making off-the-cuff comments that are sometimes humorous and sometimes inappropriate, but that one will outlive me," he said.

The former governor, convicted felon and reality TV star turned congressional candidate paid Baquet one of the higher compliments politicians can bestow on journalists. He called him a reporter who sought objectivity and had covered his campaign fairly.

"I never knew where his sympathies were," Edwards said.

When told about Baquet's promotion, he answered in his usual drollery.

"He's running The New York Times?" Edwards asked. "Why did he downgrade himself?"

Baquet and his wife, Dylan Landis, have one son. He returns to New Orleans a few times each year, where he "sucks up" the city's culture and ends more than a few evenings enjoying cigars on a front stoop with his brothers, Terry Baquet said.